The New York Times is hyping Ron Paul's media push:
In the last two weeks, Mr. Paul — a Republican presidential candidate — has spent nearly a half-million dollars on radio advertisements in four early primary states, the first major media investment of his campaign. On Tuesday night, he will take a seat opposite Jay Leno.
And on Monday, a campaign spokesman said, he will roll out his first major television advertising campaign, spending $1.1 million on five new commercials to be shown in the New Hampshire market for the next six weeks.
The media push is intended to introduce the antiwar, anti-abortion, anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, anti-Medicare Texas Republican Congressman to New Hampshire voters.
This is a dramatic change in strategy for a campaign that until now has relied primarily upon an enthusiastic band of volunteers and more than annoying online supporters.
A new poll by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester, found Dr. Paul in fourth place in New Hampshire with 7 percent of the vote, behind McCain of Arizona (15 percent), Giuliani (22 percent) and Romney (32 percent).
There is no denying that Mr. Paul has a certain appeal. Unfortunately for the Paul presidential campaign, his supporters include not only Libertarians, Independents and socially conservative Democrats, but also white supremacists and 9/11 conspiracy theorists.
Even the leader of a Pasadena Ron Paul Meetup group, complains about the fact that the Paul campaign attracts both the antigovernment activists of the right and the antiwar activists of the left:
“We’re in a difficult position of working on a campaign that draws supporters from laterally opposing points of view, and we have the added bonus of attracting every wacko fringe group in the country. And in a Ron Paul Meetup many people will consider each other ‘wackos’ for their beliefs whether that is simply because they’re liberal, conspiracy theorists, neo-Nazis, evangelical Christian, etc. . . . We absolutely must focus on Ron’s message only and put aside all other agendas, which anyone can save for the next ‘Star Trek’ convention or whatever.”
So I push Ron Paul to save his money for his next Quixotic campaign and exit stage right, or stage left. I'll save my "libertarian" tendencies for someone more mainstream.
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